Are you new here? This explains the blog
RSS
Prefer posts delivered to your inbox? Just pop your email address in below and click 'GO'.
Recent Posts
- I quit blogging.
- Learning takes courage and you knew that, didn’t you?
- Wilma’s Friends on Change starts from within YOU
- I believe in the power of the individual, YOU.
- Wilma’s friends on Following our Calling
- Having faith to LET GO.
- Wilma’s friends on Our desires are the Great Unknown
- She has no desires only goals.
- Wilma’s friends on Intimacy has consequences
- Ego rejects love and intimacy.
- Wilma’s friends on Captaining our own Life
- Allow yourself to be lovable and shine.
- Wilma’s friends on Doing love to be Lovable.
- Are we lovable enough to attract love?
- Wilma’s friends on Honesty in relationships
Further Reading
Where I am coming from
Categories
Search this site
I do it my way….
I have been caught out. I am the cause in the matter….
What happened was that the washing machine was playing up. It left lots of soap residue on the washing and I mean lots.
I hate that…so I complain bitterly…..and I end up in a funny place.
I start to announce with great conviction that in Europe things are better designed, better manufactured, that in fact everything is better in Europe??!!!
With somebody else I might have gotten away with my complaining, or better still we might have joined forces to create the best slander match ever about everything and anything ….and nowhere would I have gotten closer to a solution….or cleaner washing…
But John won’t stand for that.
He asks; “Where is the manual, lets see what the manual has to say about this.”
But I won’t stand for that.
“Manual”, I roar; “I don’t need a manual to know how to use a washing machine I have been using for years.”
“Do you think I am stupid?”
“That machine is the one who is stupid.”
John ignores this and gets the manual.
“Do you wash in cold or warm water”.
Ha, I know where he is going.
“I know that you have to wash regularly in warm to clean the machine”; I say with controlled calm and hidden glee.
“Do you use fabric softener”; is the next comment.
Still feeling the winner I say; “I don’t use that stuff.”
“How do you add the soap to the machine?”
Now I start to get annoyed.
I have dirty washing, a stupid machine and now on top of that an unsympathetic, pedantic male……
But as often happens in this type of situation, from winner I turn loser.
Of course the manual shows that I do things wrong and that there are heaps of things I don’t know about that ’stupid’ machine.
And that is how life goes……
Why am I not looking for a solution when I see a problem?
Why do I just go to complaining and making things wrong?
Why do I insist on doing it my way and expect to have a great life?
Why don’t I read manuals?
Why don’t I learn????????
Am I alone in this??
Now substitute the words ‘washing machine’ with ‘life’ and read again.
Am I still alone??
10 Comments to “I do it my way….”
Leave a reply
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'I do it my way….'.
I was given an old and well used AEG washing machine by a fellow who had just bought a huge block of apartments in Chelsea and was refrubishing them to the richies’ London standard…I had mine installed in my flat in Hampstead and was peeved I couldnt get the fellow I’d sold theflat to, to pay me – he was a real crook..and hid behind security so I never caught HIM…
However, Experience of quality washing machine meant I bought AEG out here more than a decade ago and I do not – so far – locate anyone to argue with about not quite so luxurious quallity washing machines.
Why dont you have accepted universally(!) that a lot of European manufacturers are smarter than SOME of ours..
Bestest,
Beth.
Lovely story Beth, to have your assessment things European illustrated.
Ha! This kind of “complaining about everything” approach is well known to me. A lot of my Serbian friends do that at social gatherings we have every now and then. This is one of the things that really sickens me and makes those gatherings rather unenjoyable to attend (for me). I mean, the position of an immigrant is such that you have left your country for a bunch of reasons… now you go somewhere and it’s still not good enough. Will it ever be good enough anywhere??
I concede that things are not perfect anywhere but I’d rather find ways to make it more agreeable to myself instead of complain. So, if I don’t like the fact that the cold and hot water taps are separate I either get used to it or change the faucet and sink.
Indeed, looking for solutions is a way better approach than complaining.
Robert, you are spot on, the weird thing about the complaining is that it is universal. People complain just about anything anywhere.
The Serbs or the Dutch or the South Africans do not only complain in New Zealand, they did that at home too, laying the basis for their exit strategy out of their own countries. Face it, people do not use indicators in traffic in New Zealand and do not know how to go about roundabouts. As a matter of fact, they are very bad at it. Guess what? If I ask my brother in Holland, it is his single biggest complaint about traffic in the Low Countries.
Most people do not have anything to talk about if they can’t complain and the easiest target are those around them who do not speak the language or who are not part of the culture. It is more difficult to be positive than to be negative. Negativity gives a reason to blame some-one -or something else.
Yes, Jan, for some reason this discussion reminds me of that Smiths song “I Know it’s Over” where Morrissey sings:
Maybe this complaining mentality is a result of the belief that we, as individuals, can’t really change anything…
What amazed me the most was my initial reluctance to look at the obvious when a problem shows up.
All there was was soap residue on clothes and look where it took me. I agree with you quys, we waste a lot of time in negativity and then we complain about how miserable life is….
Talk about digging your own grave, making your own misery and dragging the world around you down with you….
On the positive side, I see lots of improvement possible and not even that hard to do….
This is great Wilma, and no, you are not alone….I am there with you. What I got from your story was that the washing machine is a system and the specialists (ie manufacturers) have decleared this system in the manual, so to get the best results (clean washing) over and over again, we need to educate ourselves to use the system that works….as you said, change the words ‘washing machine’ with ‘life’….brilliant story Wilma.
Of course, systems….ha, good comparison. How oftern have I not resisted systems because I thought they were invented to annoy me instead of serve me…..Poor manufacturers, get all that bad press while they do their best to write manuals, educate us…….are we human weird or are we weird….God help us….and don’t send me a manual, I won’t read it…..maybe that is why I liked the Simpsons…
You are definately not alone Wilma. How often have I not even bothered to consider reading the manual of something like a washing machine because after all everybody knows how to do washing how different could they be. Wow I wonder how m,any times in life I have done this, I will have to notice more.
Good luck on your quest of noticing what you do and don’t do Amanda, and while you are on it be gentle on yourself. No doubt you are finding out some hidden things. It is a bit like skeltons in your own cupboard…….and you are not alone either, I am there right with you…….together….